Pile fabric



w. A. RICE 2,512,727

'- PILE mamev 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 27, 1950 Filed Aug. 4,' 1948 R 5, o A n wp@ m v June 27,1950. w. A; me 2,512,727

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ATTORNEYS Patented June 27, 195.0

PILE FABRIC Walter A. Rice, Amsterdam, N. Y., assigner to Mohawk Carpet Mills, Inc., Amsterdam, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application August 4, 1948, Serial No. 42,435

This invention relates to the production of pile fabrics, in which the pile is made up of pile fibers standing erect and having their lower ends embedded in an adhesive coating on the surface of a base. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a novel pile fabric of the type described, which can be made at low cost and has a dense uniform pile with the pile fibers bound firmly in place by adhesive and such stinness and body as to make it suitable for use as a cor covering. The pile surface of the fabric may be plain or it may carry a pattern, and the appearance of the pile of the fabric closely resembles that of the pile of a cut pile woven fabric. The invention further includes a method by which the fabric may be rapidly produced.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in section, of one form of apparatus that may be employed in practicing certain steps in the method of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in section, of one form of apparatus that may be employed in practicing other steps of the invention;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale of a woven pile fabric that may be employed as a source of pile fibers in the` production of the new fabric;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale of one element of the new fabric;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section on an enlarged scale of one form of base that may be employed in the new fabric; and

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view through one form of the new fabric.

The new fabric comprises a base I0, which may be of any suitable material and is preferably a yieldable material, such as a layer of felt of substantial thickness or a layer of sponge rubber. When felt is used, a needled felt, rather than one that has been produced by calendering and other operations, is preferred because of its lower cost. Such needled felt -is made by laying a bat of loosely matted fibers on a loosely woven fabric Il, such as burlap, and then passing needles repeatedly through the bat and fabric to secure the iibers together and to the fabric. In this operation, some of the fibrous material I2 is passed between the yarns in the fabric, so that it partially conceals the fabric. In the production of the new material, the felt is employed with its fabric reinforcement II near the upper surface,

4 Claims. (Cl. 154-76) and that surface is formed with many crests I 3 and depressions I4 resulting from the needling operation. A layer of sponge rubber is also likely to have many crests and depressions in its surface and such surface irregularities in the base of either felt or sponge rubber make it diflicult to obtain good adhesion of pile fibers thereto.

In the production of the new fabric by the method of the invention, a web I5 of a light open mesh fabric or gauze is drawn from a supply roll I6 over a spike roller I1 and over a flat support I8. A body I9 of a suitable adhesive, such as a latex adhesive, is confined upon the upper surface of the gauze by a doctor blade 20. and, as the gauze passes beneath the adhesive and the doctor blade, a thin layer of adhesive is applied to the upper surface of the gauze and penetrates through the meshes of the gauze to appear at the under surface.

The fibers used for the pile in the new fabric aresupplied by a woven fabric 2l having a cut pile. The pile fabric used may be of any standard construction but preferably contains stuifer warps 22 of jute or other relatively stiff yarn,

l tact with the under surface of the gauze.

so that the fabric will have substantial stiffness.

The pile fabric illustrated in Fig. 3 includes, in,

addition to the stuifcr warps, weft yarns 23, 24 lying above and below the stuier warps and bound in place by two sets of fine chains 25, 26. The pile tufts 21 are looped about the weft yarns lying above the stuffer warps in the normal position of the fabric and, initially, the tufts are preferably longer than would normallybe employed.

As the coated gauze I 5 passes belong the doctor blade, the pile fabric is drawn from a supply roll 28 and passed over a roller 29 to lie beneath the gauze with the tips of the pile tufts in con- The gauze and pile fabric then pass along in contact with one another and may be subjected to localized vibration by rollers 30 of polygonal section, which rotate in contact with the back of the pile fabric and strike it repeated light blows. Preferably, air nozzle pipes 3| are mounted above rollers 30 to blow air upon the upper surface of the gauze. the air jets serving to drive olf the moisture in the adhesive coating on the gauze and also to hold the assembled gauze and pile fabric against the vibrating rollers. At aresult of the vibration produced by the rollers, the tips of the pile tufts 21 of fabric 2l are embedded in the coating on the gauze and, since the tips of some of the tufts strike the yarns in the gauze and the fabric 2| is relatively stii and under tension, the tips of all the tufts enter the adhesive to a substantially uniform depth. The pile fabric with the gauze adhering to its tufts next passes through a drying chamber l2 containing steam coils 33 or other heating means, which drive oil' the moisture from the adhesive and cause it to set.

As the assembly issues from the dryer over a spike roll 34, it is looped or festooned, as indicated at l5, to permit further drying of the adhesive and, thereafter, the fabric passes over a spike roll I and between upper and lower guide plates 28, beyond which is mounted a splitting knife il. The knife is operated to cut the pile tufts 21 in a plane parallel to the plane of the back of fabric 2| and the pile fabric, from which portions of the ends of the tufts have been removed, is then passed about a spike roll 40 to a take-up roll 4|. The gauze I5, which now carries short lengths 42 of pile fibers aillxed to one surface thereof by having their ends embedded in the adhesive, is passed around a spike roll 43 to a take-up roll 44.

To complete the-new fabric in accordance with the method of the invention, a web of base material 45 is drawn from a roller 46 over a spike roll 41 and then passed beneath a body of adhesive 4l coniined against the upper surface of the web by a doctor blade 49. The adhesive may be of any suitable type, such as a latex adhesive,

and, when felt is used as the base material, it is preliminarily sized, so that it will not absorb too much adhesive. 'I'he felt passing from beneath the doctor blade carries a thin layer of adhesive, which fills the depressions in the upper surface thereof and provides a thin film over the crests in that surface.

Beyond the doctor blade, the gauze I5, to which the pile fibers 42 have been affixed in the preliminary operation, is drawn from a supply roll 5I and passed beneath a roller 5| so that its plain surface is laid against the coated upper surface of the base. The gauze is maintained under tension, so that it makes contact only with the tops of the crests in the base and bridges the depressions therein. Beyond roller 5|, the assembly of base and tufted gauze is preferably subjected to localized vibration by polygonal rollers 52, above which air nozzle pipes 53 direct jets of air against the tufted surface of the assembly. The assembly passes from the last of the rollers 52 through a drying chamber 54 containing heating means, such as steam coils 55, and, upon issuing from the chamber, the assembly passes over a spike roll 55 to a take-up roll 51.

In the completed fabric as illustrated in Fig. 6, the pile fibers 42 have their lower ends embedded to a substantially uniform depth in the adhesive coating on gauze I5 and the gauze lies approximately in a plane in contact with the tops of the crests I3 in the surface of the base. Since the fibers were derived from the tuft yarns 21 of fabric 2| and those yarns have opened up at the ends of the tufts, the fibers 42 provide a, dense and uniform coverage for the gauze. Also, since the tipsof the tufts 21 have been embedded to a substantially uniform depth in the adhesive on the gauze and the tufts 21 are cut in a plane parallel tothe back of fabric 2|, that fabric, after removal of the portions of the tufts therefrom, has a smooth uniform pile surface and may be used a number of times as a source of pile fibers to be applied to the gauze in the operation carried out in the apparatus of Fig. 1. It is for this reason that itis preferable to start with a pile fabric having an abnormally long high pile, the

4 additional lengths of the tufts permitting repeated use of the fabric as a source of pile material to be applied to the gauze.

In the new fabric, the lower ends of the Dile fibers 42 lie close to -the yarns, of which the gauze is woven, and the use of the gauze not only results in the fibers 42 being uniformly embedded in the adhesive and tightly bound in place, but also insures that the fabric 2|, after removal of the tips of the tufts therefrom, will have an even pile surface, so that this fabric may again bel used inthe application of the fibers to the gauze. If the gauze were not used and an attempt were made to embed the tips of the tufts on fabric 2| in a film of adhesive applied to the irregular surface of the base, the tips of the tufts would not be uniformly embedded in the adhesive coating, since the ends of the tufts opposite depressions in the base would be more. deeply embedded than those opposite crests. As a result, the splitting operation would produce an uneven pile surface on fabric 2|, so that the fabric could not be used again without a shearing operation involving loss of pile material.

The production of the new fabric in two stages, in which the fibrous material derived from the tufts of fabric 2| is Vfirst ailixed to the gauze and the tufted gauze subsequently ailixed to the surface of the base, facilitates drying of the adhesive. The adhesive to be dried in the first operation is carried by the gauze, one surface of which is wholly exposed, so that the moisture can be readily driven olf from the adhesive. In the second operation, the adhesive to be dried lies between the gauze and the base and a slightly longer drying period may be required. However. if the operation were carried on in a. single stage, with fabric 2| lying at one side of the gauze and the base 45 lying at the other side, the adhesive in such an assembly would lie between the fabric 2| at one side and the base 45 at the other. A

much longer time would then be required to drive f` off the moisture, because of the relatively impervious nature of the pile fabric and thebase material. As the drying of the adhesive consumes the largest amount of time in the production of the new fabric, the reduction in drying time afforded by the two-stage operation is important.

In the new fabric, the height of the pile depends on the distance between the knife and the gauze during the splitting operation, and fabrics having pile of different heights may be readily produced by proper adjustment of the knife. The appearance of the pile of the new fabric duplicates that of the woven pile fabric used as the source of pile bers, and it will thus be apparent that the new fabric may have a plain pile surface or carry any desired pattern. By using a woven pile fabric or abnormally high pile, that fabric may be employed a number of times as the source of pile material for the new fabric and is then available for ordinary purposes, after its pile has been reduced to a usual height.

I claim:

1. A pile fabric which comprises a base of yieldable material, the top surface of the base being irregular and having a multiplicity of crests and depressions, a light open mesh fabric secured to the top surface of the base by an adhesive, the fabric lying in contact only with the tops of the crests in said surface -and bridging the depressions and the adhesive' filling the depressions and the openings in the fabric and forming a lm over the exposed surface of the fabric, and substantially erect pile fibers of substantially uniform height having their ends embedded in the lm to a substantially uniform depth and to approximately the level of the fabric.

2. A method of making a pile fabric, which comprises applying an adhesive to the surface of a base of yieldable material, said surface of the base having a multiplicity of crest-sand depressions and the adhesive filling the depressions and forming a thin film over'the tops ofthe crests,

placing upon the coated surface of the base an` open mesh fabric provided with a pile surface formed of erect pile elements of substantially uniform height, the elements having ends affixed to the open mesh fabric by adhesive and the fabric being applied to the base with its untufted surface in contact only with the tops of the crests in said surface of the base and with the fabric bridging the depressions in the surface of the base, and drying the assembled base and tufted open mesh fabric.

3. A method of making a pile fabric, which comprises applying an adhesive to the surface of a base of yieldable material, said surface of the base having a multiplicity of crests and depressions and the adhesive filling the depressions and forming a thin film over the tops of the crests, placing upon the coated surface of the base an open mesh fabric provided with a pile surface formed of erect pile elements of substantially uniform height, the elements having ends aiiixed to the open mesh fabric by adhesive and the fabric being applied to the base with its untufted surface in contact only with the tops of the crests in said surface of the base, the open mesh fabric bridging the depressions in the surface of the base, subjecting the open mesh fabric and the base to localized Aagitation throughout their lengths to cause the open mesh fabric to adhere to the base and at the same time directing air jets upon the pile surface of the fabric, and drying the assembled base and open mesh fabric.

4. A pile fabric which comprises a base of needled felt having a top surface formed with a mul-` WALTER A. RICE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,745,724 Snelling Feb. 4, 1930 1,753,806 Ross Apr. 8, 1930 1,785,937 Curtis Dec. 23, 1930 2,317,595 Faris Apr. 27, 1943 2,358,204 Bird Sept. 12, 1944 

